Author Interview: Little Monsters by Maire Roche

Little Monsters is a middle grade retelling of Little Women with a twist: the March sisters are actual monsters. Meg has teeth that are a little too sharp. Jo goes full werewolf under the full moon. Beth takes flight on wings she has to hide under her sweaters. And Amy sprouts a mermaid’s tail near water. Set in a small town outside Salem as Halloween closes in, the story follows Meg as she tries to protect her sisters, stay out of sight, and figure out what other creature is lurking in the woods before the whole town decides she’s the problem. Máire Roche sat down with us to talk found family, body horror as metaphor, and the particular art of “soft scary.” Check it out below and pick up Little Monsters, out the 18th!

Little Monsters

by Máire Roche
Published by: Aladdin
on August 18, 2026
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In this modern supernatural middle grade retelling of the beloved classic Little Women, the March sisters have a monstrous secret Meg will do anything to protect—especially with another beast lurking in the woods threatening to expose them.
Meg March and her three sisters are monsters. No, really. Meg has teeth that are a little too sharp. Jo gets furry under the full moon. Beth goes night flying on wings that are impossible to hide under her sweaters. And Amy? Well, don’t let her near a body of water or she’ll start sprouting her mermaid’s tail.
Meg is sure their foster mom, Marmee, wouldn’t like any of this if she knew. And Jo’s best friend Laurie, the nice boy next door, would run screaming. To make matters worse, Meg’s small town outside of Salem is on edge. A vicious beast has been spotted in the forest, and Farmer Bhaer believes it’s responsible for his missing chickens. Meg is sure to be blamed if anyone realizes she’s a monster in disguise. And the closer it gets to Halloween, the surer the town is that something evil is hiding in the forest.
Meg doesn’t always remember what she gets up to at night, and sometimes, she wakes alone in a mossy part of the forest and has to find her way back. With John Brooke determined to find out just what Meg is hiding and locals working to uncover the monsters in their midst, Meg must find the culprit herself—or risk losing the little home she’s found with her sisters.

Interview with Máire

The March sisters have always been about love and loyalty, but here, those bonds come with claws and fangs. What drew you to mixing the warmth of Little Women with the eerie tension of a monster story?

Oh, I think there’s nothing warmer than a monstrous found family. Seriously, it’s one of my favorite tropes both as a reader and a writer, and some of the stories that best demonstrate both love and loyalty to me are stories in which the character demonstrating those qualities is a monster in some way.

It added a lot of depth for me, and it was such a fun vehicle for storytelling. Meg March in the original book works really hard on her appearance (and she has to! She was facing unfair societal standards that limited her mobility if she didn’t!) and so it was fun to translate that into a character who is a young teenage girl navigating issues with her body.

For me, the warmth and tension go hand in hand, and it was so delightful to get the chance to tell the story about girls who love each other, claws and all.

Meg’s struggle to stay “good” while hiding what she is feels both supernatural and deeply human. Did you see her monster side as a metaphor for anything real, like growing up, shame, or identity?

Absolutely, Meg’s monstrousness being tied to her emotions was such a powerful thing to write and explore. Many kids who deal with anxiety, panic disorders, or PTSD (among other things) don’t have the words to describe the changes in their body that they experience during a panic attack or anxiety attack. Obviously, mental health isn’t monstrous, but when you’re a kid who doesn’t have the words for what’s happening to you, it can really feel that way.

Meg’s anxiety often results in her nails growing sharper and her teeth turning into fangs. One of my favorite scenes to write is the moment when she realizes there may be a very loving, warm purpose behind the existence of those teeth and fangs. No spoilers, but she gets a new perspective on that side of herself that helps her become more whole and feel safer in her own body.

Her monstrousness is both a metaphor for the anxiety she doesn’t understand and the physical changes that come with growing up — those can be scary and overwhelming too. I hope readers Meg’s age can feel that love and care throughout, and maybe even leave with a new sense of peace about their own bodies and the changes we all go through.

The book’s Salem setting adds a whole new layer of history and suspicion. How did you balance the cozy, small-town vibe of the March household with the creeping sense that something dangerous is watching from the woods?

Oh, it was so much fun — I wrote it during the fall, and I looked for inspiration all around me. Autumn is the coziest season in my opinion, but it’s also peak spooky season! It was so much fun to combine those elements.

I was really going for “soft scary” — a book that adds a little bit of that spine-tingling sensation without overwhelming the reader. A great recent example of a book that balances those two is Juliana Brandt’s Exit Nowhere, which is a contemporary paranormal middle grade about a haunted house/escape room combo.

For Little Monsters, I really wanted readers to cozy up in a blanket, light a candle, and get juuuust the right amount of scared.